What to do

[truck driver]

I have a 300Wby that I don't care for the recoil since it causes my eyes to blur and can't get a second shot off. I would like to rechamber the barrel to 308 Norma or 300 H&H. Muzzle brakes are out of the question since the barrel is only 24" now and to cut it to install a brake would make it too short and I wouldn't care for the extra muzzle blast which the Wby has plenty of as is.
Can I rechamber or do I need to rebarrel?

[firebrick43]

Depends on the profile of the barrel. The barrel needs cut and rethreaded. Many lighter weight profiles can't as they start to taper off and the new chamber will be to thin of wall thickness out of the shoulder. Also you are going to lose some length and even a 308 Norma or 300 h&h should have at least a 24" barrel if not 26 or all the powder is not going to burn in the barrel ending up as muzzle blast. Going to lose 1/2" with the 308 Norma and maybe an inch with 300 h&h

but why not just reload reduced loads and not touch the gun at all?

[William Yanda]

"but why not just reload reduced loads and not touch the gun at all?"

what he said.

[W.R.Buchanan]

"but why not just reload reduced loads and not touch the gun at all?"

what he said.

What he said!

Randy

[truck driver]

Tried reduced loads and the thing is a scatter gun compared to the full charge loads, full charge 180gr loads shoot 1/2" to 3/4" at 100yds and the reduced loads are lucky if they make 2" at 100yds. The way Wby designed the case it needs max loads to shoot well.

[leeggen]

Just a couple questions. Are you useing factory loads or reloads? If reloads what powder and what bullet, already know it is 180gr? I know of a few Weatherbeys that are shooting reduced recoil loads, just a matter of powder to use. Myself if a gun recoiled hard enough to cause my eyes to blur it would be owned by someone else. Shooting a rifle should be a love affair and not knock down drag out. JMO
CD

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Well you have faced up to what many a user of very powerful rifles doesn't. The advantages of extreme velocity can easily be more than outweighed by the lack of a very rapid second shot. Sometimes I think a valuable commercial opportunity has been missed, although the few 2 bore rifles have come very close. The only way to produce a firearm that can't possibly be challenged as the most powerful, is to produce one that can't possibly be fired from the shoulder by any human being.

Having said that, I liked my .300 H&H which I built on a P14 Enfield action. But I built heavy, with a 7 contour Shilen barrel and an Andaman Padauk stock. You would have to shorten the barrel quite a bit, from the breech, to rechamber for that cartridge. So if you must rechamber, the .300 Winchester round would be a better one to do it for, as this should require less than a quarter inch of shortening. I doubt, though, if either of these rounds would make a worthwhile degree of recoil reduction on its own.

I think a muzzle brake would be worth looking into, for most of them don't require shortening of the existing barrel. The best for recoil reduction increase blast, at least for bystanders, and the best for blast aren't so good for recoil reduction. Another useful stratagem would be to groove the bottom of the forearm channel and glass in a piece of lead rod to add weight.

2in. groups are pretty usable for many hunting purposes, and well within living memory manufacturers would have considered it normal for a factory rifle and ammunition. It is certainly possible to achieve poor accuracy with the .300 Weatherby and a partly-filled powder case. But you could probably make some improvement with lighter bullets, different powders and a light inert filler, such as kapok, to kee the powder consistently placed adjacent to the primer.

You could get a friend to watch from the side, to find out how much the muzzle rises in recoil. Or if it is too quick and momentary, shoot under a piece of stiff cardboard, and see how high it has to be to avoid contact. Then when you have that information, see if it looks lie the cheekpiece is jolting your head upwards. If it is a Weatherby Weatherby it is likely to have a reverse-sloping cheekpiece, and that might do it as the rifle moves the other way, bouncing from your shoulder. I once did some shooting with a 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Schoenauer soon after thoracic surgery, which caused me no discomfort whatever, although sitting and lying did. So I think impact on the brain is a decisive factor. I sometimes wonder if it is lie piloting a Stuka divebomber, which was fitted with an automatic pull-out device, as most pilots experienced visual impairment or blackout for about three seconds when pulling out of a dive.

[leftiye]

Your eyes stay out of focus longer than it takes to chamber the next cartridge and get back on target (might be a problem there?)? Put a muzzle brake on it. My .300 Win is a fun to shoot, easy recoiling gun with a muzzle brake. Don't cut the barrel shorter to install the brake, just thread it (add the brake to the barrel). All that muzzle blast becomes your friend with the muzzle brake where reducing recoil is concerned.

[gunshot98]

Limbsaver just came out with a magnum recoil pad that is 1.5 inches thick just for what you are experiencing. just put one on a 338 mag and it helped greatly. Not expensive either. Check it out, they work very good.

[HollowPoint]

Or; you could spend the money you would have otherwise spent for re-chambering or rebarreling on a good suppressor. It would add a little weight to help reduce some of that recoil. It would also mitigate the loud blast and some of the felt recoil as well.

The only down side is that it takes so darn long from the time of purchase to the time you take delivery of the suppressor. I've heard it's worth the wait. I'm still waiting to take delivery of my suppressor.

HollowPoint

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Your eyes stay out of focus longer than it takes to chamber the next cartridge and get back on target (might be a problem there?)? Put a muzzle brake on it. My .300 Win is a fun to shoot, easy recoiling gun with a muzzle brake. Don't cut the barrel shorter to install the brake, just thread it (add the brake to the barrel). All that muzzle blast becomes your friend with the muzzle brake where reducing recoil is concerned.

I don't believe it is exactly a focus problem, but more a very momentary form of the visual "grey veil" which Stuka pilots reported if they escaped actual blackout. I've only ever experienced it with a pestilentially light heavily loaded .45-70. That mightn't be too bad with an enraged pachyderm, but the OP was anxious to keep his sub-1in. groups, which suggests an animal small and elusive enough to be vanishing into cover by the time the rifle bounces back.

Another idea which might help is a recoil reducer which slips into a hole under the buttplate. I am a little skeptical of the ones that use springs or moveable mercury (if they are still allowed mercury), but weight is weight. Still I think in the forend is the best place.

I am also dubious about thick, soft recoil pads. Some find them beneficial, others not. The argument for "not" is that they allow the rifle to recoil a fraction of an inch before your shoulder comes into play, and thus builds up a higher velocity than rifle, shoulder and chest would have done.

[ascast]

"but why not just reload reduced loads and not touch the gun at all?"

you can do a LOT of load testing for the cost of all that re-work. I have yet to see a cartridge of any rifle caliber that hand crafted load can't beat factory ammo.

I would maybe add some weight as suggested.

[John Taylor]

A muzzle brake will not shorten the barrel. The end of the barrel is threaded and the brake is screwed on adding almost 2" to the overall length. A good brake can reduce recoil up to 50%. Recoil reducer in the butt stock will help also but add weight to the gun. IMHO a 24" barrel is to short for the 300 Weatherby or any other 300 mag. When I had my 300 Win. it had a 31" barrel. Group size was close to 3" at 600 yards with that long barrel and velocity was just under 3400 with 180 grain bullets.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

That recoil pad comment sounds like internet BS. Limbsaver makes a slip-on. Walmart carries them (in Wyoming). I use Kick-eez, Hi-Viz and Limbsaver, finding all are better than plastic, steel, or harder rubber pads very light .45-70, .300 Win, .444 and .358 Win, but I put recoil pads on almost everything. There will be 'reduced loads' that work. Finding the barrel vibration nodes using the 'ladder' method with different powders and/or different bullets should give you multiple points at different velocities that group well. I don't see the .300 H&H or .308 Norma as a solution.

[robg]

lighter boolits with reduced load of correct powder and a bit of fine tuning

[Thin Man]

I found it interesting you are having issues with a 300 Wby. A local gent is having the same issues you are having. He took his rifle to a local gunsmith who has considerable experience in this field. The smith manufactured and installed a muzzle brake that reduced the recoil of this specific rifle to the level of a 243 Win.! As for the gas blow-back, it would part the shooter's hair. Not a lot of quite time here, but serious recoil reduction. Seems that anything accomplished is a trade of one issue for another.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

That recoil pad comment sounds like internet BS. .

You think so? I was trying to put it a bit more politely than that. What I said was that some find it beneficial, but for those who don't, there is a plausible scientific argument.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I found it interesting you are having issues with a 300 Wby. A local gent is having the same issues you are having. He took his rifle to a local gunsmith who has considerable experience in this field. The smith manufactured and installed a muzzle brake that reduced the recoil of this specific rifle to the level of a 243 Win.! As for the gas blow-back, it would part the shooter's hair. Not a lot of quite time here, but serious recoil reduction. Seems that anything accomplished is a trade of one issue for another.

Exactly. You can design a braking device to do just about anything with recoil, but the blast will be horrendous. The ultimate examples were the recoilless rifles, from about 57mm. upwards, which came close to balancing out the recoil caused by a large shell, by venting breech-pressure gas straight to the rear. But they had to be held over the shoulder, and would do severe damage to anyone behind you. As the vent holes wore larger, they would actually give a slight leap forward. A sound suppressor can virtually eliminate blast, but do relatively little for recoil, and are troublesome to obtain in many jurisdictions, although they have become pretty easy in the UK in recent years.